Tea for two in the near future?

Ellen Senecal operates the retail shop Florabunda on 216 Main Street and would like to add a tearoom. Steve King photo Selectmen last Monday did not sign a common victualer license permitting Ellen Senecal to operate a tearoom at her retail shop Florabunda, 216 Main St., postponing their decision until they have more information.

Senecal would like to serve tea and cookies by reservation only at Florabunda. Though the common victualer license is required of restaurant owners for the preparation and sale of food, she said the tearoom would not be a restaurant.

"If she is also going to serve cookies and sandwiches, then theoretically she'd be classified the same as a restaurant," said Harry Johnson, Rutland building inspector/zoning enforcement agent. "She probably wouldn't be able to [open a tearoom] because it would put her in a business zone classification."

Restaurants cannot operate in residential zones, Johnson said, and Florabunda is in a residential zone. Planning board chair Norman Anderson, however, said it's "very possible" that Senecal's neighborhood will be classified as a business zone within a year or two, as the zoning bylaw subcommittee reconsiders town zoning.

Abutters support

About 12 residents, many of them abutters, attended the discussion.

"The [goal] of the master plan committee was to design a master plan that would have small businesses that would work with the center of town," said former master plan committee member and neighbor Brian Stidsen. "That was our dream for the center of town - to surround it with small home occupations."

"I live next to Ellen, and I've seen a lot of things in the newspaper that are in residential zones and are doing the same thing," said Louise Dimarzio. "Haven't they set a precedent, and why are we singling [Florabunda] out?"

In response, Select Board Chair Louis Cornacchioli noted the Rufus Putnam House is a bed and breakfast, and therefore falls under different zoning bylaws.

"A bed and breakfast is allowed in a residential zone," said Johnson.

"What's the difference between offering tea or soda to customers as they browse your store, and opening a tearoom?" said selectman Don D'Auteuil. "To me there is an awful lot of discussion to be had."

Senecal has operated Florabunda under the home occupation bylaw, which Anderson says allows homeowners to do certain types of business activities from home in residential zones. To meet the criteria for a home occupation, the business/homeowner can hire no more than one employee, and the business space must meet square footage requirements.

Rutland bylaws distinguish between a home and a major home occupation. Granted by the planning board on a case-by-case basis, a major home occupation special permit allows a greater amount of square footage and more than one employee. It requires the applicant to provide parking behind or alongside the home business.

The planning board last month determined that the tearoom, if a victualer license were awarded, would not require a major home occupation special permit. If Senecal were to apply for a special permit, her limited parking would prevent her from receiving one, Anderson said.

Cornacchioli said there are too many complicated legal questions still left hanging. "We have to make sure what we are doing is legal, and there are too many questions that I can't make a decision right now," he said. A "three-pronged attack" will settle the issue, Cornacchioli said, with he, Johnson and town counsel Paul Cranston researching the matter.